2 comments about Watercolor Simplified.

1. I would give this book more than 5 stars, if I could. This is my first review of anything, but I am so excited about this book that I just had to write about it. I've been painting for about 6 months now, so I'd consider myself still very much a beginner. I'm currently taking my second 6 week course and have completed two workshops. Even though I'm only half-way through this book I feel I've learned more than my courses and workshops combined. Pat Weaver has some simple, but necessary exercises that really explain how to get the most out of painting with watercolor. It's not an easy medium and out of the 4 instructors (courses and workshops) only one clinician ever helped me learn about mixing colors (she only used 3 colors in her workshop) and showed me the beauty of glazing. Unfortunately, that wasn't until the end of the 6 hour workshop. I just finished one of the exercises in Pat's book and had I done this first I would have gotten way more out of my course and both workshops. Though my current instructor loaned me this book I'm ordering one for my own library. I highly recommend this book.



2. I checked this book out of the library, and like it a great deal. However, for my purposes (I am only a self-taught "baby watercolorist"), it is a bit too advanced for me. After I have developed some confidence and experience in watercolor painting, I will buy this book.

4 comments about How To Draw Manga: Guns & Military (Volume 1) (How to Draw Manga).

1. This book does not give steps, and as such you must be able to draw from reference material to make use of it. As a reference book, it does fairly well. The guns are shown from different angles, and the technical data given assists with research (provided the selection of firearms lines up with your research). Flipping through it a few times, I've yet to see any errors. The book also gives reference pictures of aiming postures and uniforms, making it a good reference guide for artists who don't want to spend two hours on google images trying to find that one useful picture.



2. I really enjoyed this book. It is great for learning how to draw weapons, not just anime style, but any style. This book really has little to do with anime. But the weapons are great. There are many different angles and bits of information, like how many bullets they use, what country used them and when, etc. My only complaint would be the lack of futuristic weapons. Also, don't expect knives or swords. It's just a book of guns (and some random motorcycles).



3. Like most of the How to Draw Manga series, this is more of a reference guide then a book on how to draw. The cover says Guns and Military, but it's mostly only guns (although it does have about 3 pages dedicated to Russian, Japanese and American police uniforms). It has over 22 different types of guns, and gets very detailed as with the types of bullets the gun uses, who uses them, and how to a person would aim them. You probably shouldn't get this unless you have some experience in drawing, since as I said this is a reference guide and it only shows drawings of what the guns look like, not how to draw them.

   The types of guns shown in this book are:
   Walther PPK
   Parabellum P08
   Beretta Cougar
   Walther P38
   Heckler & Koch P7M13
   Beretta M92SB-F
   Kalashinikova AK-47
   Schmeisser MP40
   S&W M29
   Glock 17
   Wildey .45 Magnum
   Nambu Taisho 14
   Gyrojet
   Makarov
   Remington M31 Riot Shotgun
   Colt SAA (Single Action Army)
   Nambu Type 94
   C96/M1916
   M1908 Pocket .25
   Colt Third Model Dragoon
   Webley & Scott MK. VI (IV)
   Sten Mark II




4. This book is really great for anyone wanting to include guns or other military realted tools in their manga or stories. The book is very well done and the pictures are accurate. The author has also included useful information about diffrent types of guns, ammunition, fireing styles, gun modifications used by shooters around the world. The other great thing about it is it is layman friendly, the author goes through alot of information that will help you better understand how guns work and why diffrent modifications and ammunitions are uses for diffrent purposes. Besides guns the book also cover accessories and some military uniforms from diffrent countries. Again I have to comment on the accuracy of the information. I've seen firearm encyclopedias that don't cover as much as they do in this book. It is really work getting.

No comments about Graphic Design Now.

3 comments about George Bickham's Penmanship Made Easy (Young Clerks Assistant).

1. ...still an enjoyable read for the price.

   A good portion of the writing samples included in Mr. Bickham's book were not, in fact, considered calligraphy in their time, but rather to exemplify legible and easy styles of business hand, intended, as per the book's subtitle, for clerks and others whose jobs necessitated a good deal of writing and record-keeping, prior to the era of the typewriter. To the reviewer who complained of the cursive scripts being illegible, try reading handwritten cursive a bit more often; the scripts do retain certain archaisms such as the extended S, but are not significantly different from, for instance, the Spencerian system of cursive penmanship, which dominated American schools throughout the 19th century. If you want illegible (to the modern reader's eye) calligraphy, try picking your way through an illuminated medieval manuscript.

   That said, this caveat must be included: this book does -not- give explicit instruction on how to reproduce the styles, it is merely a collection of the best samples-- it's best for those who already have some grasp of some form of calligraphy or antiquated penmanship. For those -looking- to learn, I would recommend Theory of Spencerian Penmanship as a starting point, at the very least. For those who have no interest in taking up calligraphy and merely enjoy looking at elegant handwriting, it's a delightful curiosity and memento of the vanished culture of penmanship; much of the writing samples given are quite simply beautiful to look at; though this particular calligraphy enthusiast would hope that admiration of beautiful writing would spur more people to take up interest in a now-esoteric art.




2. I have trouble calling this a book. It's a bound collection of calligraphy, and not very good calligraphy at that. Many letters are unreadable. Penmanship should be to help communicate by written word. This book is not helpful unless you're experienced with calligraphy.



3. Mr. Bickham was an 18th century engraver and calligrapher. Although the book (orignally published ca 1733) begins with a set of rules on how to form letters, these rules and the book's examples are best studied by an experienced calligrapher. This is NOT a beginner's book. But it is delightful for those who like to examine the formal hands of nearly three centuries ago. The examples are not just alphabets but writing samples. Fancy "Content alone is true happiness; or the Country Lass"? How about "Beauty's a Fair But Fading Flower"? There are many calligraphic examples from copperplate to blackhand. As the gentlelman says, everything the "young clerk's assistant" might need.

2 comments about Merian's Antique Botanical Prints CD-ROM and Book (Pictorial Archives).

1. Had I know that there were worms on every plant I would not have purchsed this item. The pictures, when viewed up close are horrible.



2. Excellent illustrations! Good and great colors and images. I use these for decoupage and they are great.

3 comments about Bevels and Jewels Stained Glass Pattern Book: 83 Designs for Workable Projects.

1. The patterns are simple and simplistic. Not something I will want to work with.
   
   Was hoping for more.



2. stain glass is my favorite and I look at this book long ago when I am little. This book is really good for stain glass projects.



3. The only reason I gave this book a 4 is all designs need to be enlarged, and there are no pictures of the finished designs.

   Below is a portion of the publisher's note within the book, that will give you some good information.

   "Bevels and glass jewels add sparkling points of interest to any stained glass project. This book includes 83 floral, geometric, bird, butterfly, fish, Art Nouveau and Victorian style patterns that have been specially designed to highlight the faceted and shaped glass pieces that appear within them. The patterns appear in square, rectangular, circular, octagonal and free-form shapes and can be used for lightcatchers, door and window panels, box tops and glass projects. Bevels and jewels are no more difficult to incorporate into a pattern than regular stained glass sections."

   Later in this same section they go on further about the contents of the book.

   "The illustrations on pages 4-7 show the true size (and in some cases two views) of all the bevels and jewels that appear within the patterns on pages 8-64. The patterns, however, appear within the book at half their actual size and will need to be xeroxed at a 200% enlargement in order for the bevels and jewels to fit. The measurements that are printed next to each pattern give the dimensions to which it will be enlarged when doubled in size."

   My impressions of the book, as I just received it are positive. There are some pretty nice designs inside from the tradition looking door insert types to some pretty intricate bird, fish and flower designs. None except for the cover are shown as a picture, all are sketches and drawings. Inside both covers are drawings with suggested colors of 11 of the designs within, but the rest only have the patterns in black and white. All patterns have other patterns on the back side.

   Some details are:

   8 butterfly designs (some with flowers)

   3 birds

   3 fish

   7 flowers (distinctly flowers and not stylized geometric renditions)

   The bulk of the book, is stylized flower or geometric designs. Really neat looking ones. This is not surprising as the bevels and jewels are limited to specific geometric shapes.

   All in all a decent book.

2 comments about Max Huber.

1. Wow, simply fantastic and sublime. Along with Hoffman one of the greatest Graphic Designers to come around.



2. This book is informative of Max Huber, his style, his philosophies and it offers beautiful imagery both color and black/white. We display the series, including OTl Aicher, Josef Muller-Brockmann because they're all the same size and thickness. Phaidon knows what they're doing.

3 comments about Learning To Look At Paintings.

1. This book is written in a plain, clear style---it is a good reference book to look up anything about art. The chapters are short.



2. I enjoyed this book on the principles and elements of design. I think she selected exemplary pictures to illustrate her point. I especially enjoyed the chapter on "subject matter". The only drawback of this book was having to flip back and forth from the reading to the painting. Also, she talked about some of the paintings color combinations that were printed in black and white. In the paperback version some of the details of the paintings were lost because they were reproduced on a small scale. Overall, though I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about design elements.



3. Composition, space, form, tone, color, subject-matter, and other pictorial elements of the plastic arts are considered and their interrelationships explained in this handy introduction, with over ninety well-chosen illustrations, some in color.
   The author, an experienced art teacher, has also included illuminating essays on drawing and its purposes, looking at prints, a handy glossary of art terms, and references for further reading.
   Highly recommended as eminently suitable for an Introduction to Art course, and for anyone else interested in learning to see more in paintings.

   (The "score" rating is an unfortunately ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

1 comments about Giant: Manifestations (2004 ed.).

1. GIANT flexes mad style in several mediums. First and foremost, he's got fine line tattoo flash art and tattoos down to a science and this book documents that work faithfully. What's the most amazing thing about the body of work in MANIFESTATIONS is that GIANT is also the master of pen and ink illustration (as seen in many of the Zines he put out through his own Skullz Press), has a dope graff style and has a good eye behind the camera lens as well.

5 comments about Al Capp's Li'l Abner: The Frazetta Years, Volume 1 1954-55.

1. The nearest thing I know of today to the satire of Li'l Abner is The Simpsons. Parodies of popular culture, politics etc.. from the perspective of flawed innocents somehow getting caught up in weird events. Al Capp's creation was probably just as well known in it's day as Groening's work is now.
   There is great drawing to be seen here by the stable of cartoonists employed in Li'l Abner, there is persistently good writing which must surely have cut close to the wind in 50's America. This is pre-PC and the way Capp seemed to look at the world and the roles and weaknesses of men and women is funny to look back on. At the same time the comedy stands up in it's own right. I particularly enjoyed the Lower Slobbovia scenes. There is often a frenetic pace to all these comics, with Capp seemingly uninterested in continuity concerns.
   These works do not seem to be taken from original art (perhaps it can't be located (easily anyway)). They are scanned from newspapers with mastheads still intact. This is interesting to a degree but the limitations of the sources mean the colour leaves a lot to be desired. One of Lonesome Polecat and Hairless Joe's dinosaurs is a different colour each week it appears. A character may have different coloured hair or clothes. Skin tone also vary greatly.
   These quibbles are major but the quality of the cartooning and writing is such that it can be overlooked. The 4th volume has some isolated pages which are well coloured and that makes you wish that it was all at that higher standard. Perhaps it would be better in black and white as the dailies look great.
   Time to get the dailies back out too. Get on it Fantagraphics!



2. I caught the tail end of the Li'l Abner series as a child in the 1960's and remember loving it. I recently started looking for some collections in libraries, but couldn't find any so I looked on Amazon and found this volume and bought it. I've had a great time reading it and even though the things it satirizes occurred before I was born, I'm familiar with much of them through my study of history. Much of what is satirized is applicable to any time and is still fresh.
   
   I've recently been reading some of the classic satire of Voltaire (Candide) and Rabelais (Gargantua and Pantagruel) and this seems to fit right in with that style. I guess I have a warped sense of humor. I wish today's comics were this good.
   
   I enjoyed the artwork and appreciated the explanations at the end of the book highlighting some of the items that someone born after that era may have missed. I highly recommend this book. I will probably order more volumes.



3. Grew up reading this series. Now I have a permanent copy of my own. Good price and great product for comics junkies.



4. I bought this volume (and volumes 2-4) for my Dad for Christmas because he was such a big L'il Abner fan when I was a kid in the 60's. When they arrived I just had to sit down and read them all before wrapping them up! L'il Abner is a lens focused on it's own era in time, totally tongue-in-cheek! For rollicking fun and biting satire these comics can't be beat!



5. Lil Abner always had a strong fan club that allowed the reprinting of the daily strips by Kitchen Sink press for about 25 volumes, which if there was no fan base, only one or two volumes would have been published.
   
   In addition,we are very lucky that Frazetta's reputation and fan club would allow the printing of a comic strip that John Steinbeck once stated, its author, Al Capp, should be given the Putszler (excuse the spelling) prize.
   
   Al Capp was a master satirist and storyteller, who would have one acclaim like Mark Twain or O'Henry if not for the snob attitude toward comic strips.
   
   This is shown here. The 50-year-old color strips are re-printed in a fine manner with expert commentary about the period they were written in by Denis Kitchen.
   
   Beware, they feature "politically incorrect" well-endowed women, and one main character, Daisy Mae, as mostly submissive, which would not be allowed in comic strips today as it would raise the ire of feminists and other "progressive" people.
   
   On the other hand, it features the two main male characters, Abner and Pappy, as idiots or wimps, Abner and his brother Tiny as "hunks", and the one of the main women characters, Mammy as the leader of the Yokum clan, who occassionally beats Pappy, which are allowed in comic strips today as the "Progressives" seem to have no problem with this.
   
   Remember, vintage comic strip reprints do not generate big bucks, some even lose money. They are produced out of great admiration for the strips, and we should be grateful for the publishers for doing so.
   
   
   By the way, why does Amazon include a 'NO' in 'was this review helpful to you?'. People are only human and don't like opinions that differ from themselves. With some who are less mature, this the 'NO' makes it too easy express such displeasure.
   
   Are they trying to discourage negative reviews, hence not purchase the CD. Such reviews only help a person in not being dissatisfied a product that received positive reviews